Pandemic Treaty

WHO has suggested a 'Pandemic Treaty.' It involves global cooperation for a sustainable and flexible funding.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/whos-tedros-says-time-has-come-for-pandemic-treaty/articleshow/83116936.

Image credit - Financial Times

6 Trade War Battles of USA-China

The PIIE (Peterson Institute for International Economics) listed the timeline for 6 different trade war battles between USA and China. The Jury is still out in same cases. 

https://www.piie.com/sites/default/files/documents/trump-trade-war-timeline.pdf

Image credit - Everstream Analytics

Image credit - Global Trade Magazine

Creating A Graphical Abstract

3 ways to create a graphical abstract for your paper in the link below. The video is around 11 minutes.

https://www.annaclemens.com/blog/make-graphical-abstract-paper

The BTS Meal Tour

The latest craze for the K-Pop Idol music fan. Top-up with their latest 4 BillBoard Music Awards 2021. What is their secret to success?  Hard work.

Check-out their latest choreography MV with the new song release "Butter."

https://my.asiatatler.com/dining/bts-mcdonalds-collaboration

Image credit: Tatler Malaysia - courtesy of McDonald's

Taxing Digital Economy

Excerpt:

"Now that digital commerce accounts for more than a third of its economy, China is looking for ways to more effectively tax domestic e-commerce titans like Alibaba, Tencent and Didi Chuxing.

It's a huge and growing target for filling government coffers. In 2019, the nation's digital economy generated 35.8 trillion yuan ($5.52 trillion) of revenue, accounting for 36% of China's GDP, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. The digital economy has expanded much faster than the rest of the economy over the past decade."

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/Why-China-plans-to-tax-the-booming-digital-economy

Digital Tax Around the World - Image Credit: Quaderno

Pelayaran Panglima Awang aka Enrique de Malacca

Know your History. A Good reminder from Emeritus Professor Dato Dr. Wan Hashim Wan Teh in Tinta Minda, BERNAMA (Malay Article).

https://www.bernama.com/bm/tintaminda/news.php?id=1957275#abc

Image credit - Orangkata.my

Cognitive Liberty and Governance

It is Elon Musk again and his neuralink's brain implant. Read the link below from the OECD's Innovation Blog.

https://oecd-innovation-blog.com/2020/09/23/brain-computer-neurotechnology-artificial-intelligence-ai-elon-musk/

Image credit: OECD Innovation Blog

A Simple App to Teach Regression

Please try it. Found it in Top100 Economics Blog - Managerial Econ

https://www.trialandstderror.com

The Deficit Gamble

Mankiw's latest thought on the deficit due to fiscal stimulus and the earlier work regarding the issue in the link below.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-the-government-running-a-ponzi-gamble-with-debt-one-famous-economist-warns-it-may-end-badly-11620159850

Image credit - VoxEU

Arresting Covid-19

Latest article from the IMF Blog on a Proposal to end the pandemic. In one word - 'financing.'

https://blogs.imf.org/2021/05/21/a-proposal-to-end-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Image credit - IMF

7-Wonder of Digital Technology in Manufacturing

Heard of Cobots (Collaborative Robots)? Twin Digitals? More on the article below.

https://amfg.ai/2019/03/28/industry-4-0-7-real-world-examples-of-digital-manufacturing-in-action/

Image credit - Digital Twins of Team Penske, AMFG 2020

Netflix vs Adam Smith

 Economic Interconnection.

Image credit -www.bytesizestory.com

Economic Shocks of Coronavirus Crisis

March 2020's article from the Harvard Business Review on understanding the economic shocks of coronavirus. There is also a short 4.17 minutes video explaining the alphabets of economic recovery.

https://hbr.org/2020/03/understanding-the-economic-shock-of-coronavirus

Image credit -Harvard  Business Review

Collection of Award Winning Case Studies

Informative site on case studies at IBS Hyderabad, India. They also listed a collection of award-winning case studies. some authors are blogging on short case studies. The price per case is reasonable. Visit them for a refreshing look at playing CEO's roles in challenging situation.

https://icmrindia.org/About_Us.htm

Image credit - SlideShare IBS

Life Kit During Covid-19

Need a Hobby?  'Life Kit - How to Find a Hobby During the Pandemic' in the article below. A 2-minute read.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/15/996193143/a-knitter-a-rock-climber-and-a-mixologist-teach-us-how-to-find-a-hobby

Image credit - from the Article.

One-To-One Concert During Covid-19

For your ears only. What an interesting idea to keep the economy running during the crisis. It also minimises social contact and keeps everyone safe. Good therapy, especially for music lovers. I wonder what Yiruma, the Korean pianist would say (I wrote about Yiruma in another posting).

Image credit -Ed Lefkowicz/Brooklyn Academy of Music

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/14/995449587/one-to-one-concerts-bring-listeners-back-to-live-music-one-at-a-time

Gesell's Tax

Excerpt from Dr. Suwailem's article, taken from the IRTI Blog:

"This is a shift from the prevailing rule that the SDR can be used only by central banks of the member countries of the IMF. However, this shift is motivated by the need to have a sustainable source of funding sustainable development. Sustainable development is a public good, and only institutions like the IMF and the MDBs can offer this good to the global economy.

It should be noted that the proposal to use SDR to support development is different from the prevalent proposals to use the SDR as a global currency or "helicopter money". We think that restricting the new role of the SDR to target sustainable development will be of especially added value to the world economy."

IRTI's Blog on Gesell's tax:

https://blogs.irti.org/a-proposal-for-sdr-based-sdgs-cryptocurrency/

LSE's article on Gesell's solution:

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/848/

Image credit - Financial Times

Image credit - GG Preparata, Geselll 1862 - 1930

The Trilemma

We are now entering the 4th wave of Covid-19. Hopefully the pandemic will end soon. Latest article in the IMF Blog talks about policymakers' trilemma in handling the health crisis that turn into an economic crisis later. 

Excerpt:

"This is the situation facing many finance ministers in sub-Saharan Africa today. And they face three immediate challenges: Firstly, to meet increased spending needs; secondly, to contain a pronounced increase in public debt, and finally, to mobilize more tax revenues."

https://blogs.imf.org/2021/05/12/the-policymakers-trilemma/

Image credit - IMF Blog

Crypto Sukuk

An article by the Acting Director General of IRTI, Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem on crypto Sukuk in the link below.

Excerpt:

"But the underlying technology, the blockchain technology and the cryptographic techniques, are obviously of immense potential. The question, however, is how to apply these technologies productively. One such application is in the area of Islamic capital markets instruments, particularly Sukuk.

Sukuk are commonly defined as “Islamic bonds”, which is unfortunate. Sukuk, as characterized by AAOIFI standards and many other authentic sources, include both fixed and variable income modes of finance, and thus they cover both risk-sharing and debt-based structures."

https://blogs.irti.org/the-case-for-crypto-sukuk/

Image credit - SlideShare

Image credit - Blossom Finance

USD as Reserves Currency Drops to 25-Year Low

Excerpt:

"During periods of US dollar weakness against major currencies, the US dollar’s share of global reserves generally declines since the US dollar value of reserves denominated in other currencies increases (and vice versa in times of US dollar strength). In turn, US dollar exchange rates can be influenced by several factors, including diverging economic paths between the United States and other economies, differences in monetary and fiscal policies, as well as foreign exchange sales and purchases by central banks."

https://blogs.imf.org/2021/05/05/us-dollar-share-of-global-foreign-exchange-reserves-drops-to-25-year-low/

Source - IMF Blog

China's Rebalancing

Excerpt from the World Bank Group Report 2021:

"Moreover, as China seeks to rebalance its economy from investment to a more innovation- and services-driven growth model, it will need to embrace the growth potential of its most developed and innovative metropolitan areas and city clusters, shifting the growth pole back to the coastal regions. Against this backdrop, policies to foster market integration and reduce spatial frictions in factor markets would enable a more efficient spatial allocation of labor and capital, harnessing the benefits of agglomeration and urbanization."

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35014

Image credit - Barron's

The Robinhood of Covid-19

Value transfer vs Value creation vs Value leverage. The article in the link below, taken from the Byte Size Economics Blog focusing on value creation. A good 4-min read. 

https://www.bytesizestory.com/post/value-transfer-creation-leverage

Image credit - Forbes

SDR as a Development Currency

A proposal by Dr. Sami Al-Suwailem, IRTI in the link below.

https://blogs.irti.org/a-proposal-for-sdr-based-sdgs-cryptocurrency

Image credit - ResearchGate

Consumer Product Safety in the Digital Age

The OECD has outlined recommendations for Consumer Product Safety. This is in response to the changing landscape of consumer demand in the digital age. Among them are:  "consumer right to safe products, evidence-based product safety laws, comparable approaches to systematic risk management, information sharing between government authorities and businesses, and special consideration for the needs of vulnerable consumers."

https://oecd-innovation-blog.com/2021/03/10/oecd-consumer-product-safety-recommendation-e-commerce/

Image credit - OECD

Islamic Finance Post Covid-10

An article written by the Senior Economist at IRTI, Halymun Izhar. He highlights 5 possible trends in Islamic finance post-pandemic:

1. Changes in social norm and values.

2. Digital economy may change the way we do business.

3. Emergence of new asset classifications 

4. Birth of a new global currency.

5. Moving from globalization to regionalization.

https://blogs.irti.org/outlook-of-islamic-finance-post-covid-19/

Image credit - ResearchGate: Hassan et al., 2021

Malaysia's PondokStay

Muslim-friendly new concept of tourism. It would be similar to Youn's stay, perhaps. Youn Stay introduces Korean culinary and life-style to others visiting Korea during the pandemic. PondokStay is a creative Islamic Tourism product. 

http://www.motac.gov.my/en/media/release/malaysia’s-pondokstay-concept-lauded-as-creative-islamic-tourism-product

Image credit - Yayasan Al-Jenderami

The Trust Machine

What makes the machine trustworthy? Read the article below from the IRTI's Blog. 

https://blogs.irti.org/can-we-trust-the-trust-machine/

Image credit - IRTI homepage